In association with a specific intersection into which vehicles are permitted to proceed in the order that the vehicles arrive at the intersection, a below technique is heretofore known (JP2010-26618A). In this technique, when a vehicle proceeds into the specific intersection, an in-vehicle camera of the vehicle is used to capture images of other vehicles which are also proceeding into the specific intersection. Positions of the other vehicles are detected from the captured images and then used to give priority in ascending order of the distance from the detected positions of the other vehicles to the specific intersection. After another vehicle of higher priority than the own vehicle proceeds through the specific intersection, the own vehicle is allowed to proceed into the specific intersection.
In the above conventional technique, vehicles are prioritized on the basis of the distances from the vehicles to the specific intersection. It is therefore required to highly accurately detect the position of another vehicle on the basis of the captured image and accurately calculate the distance from the position of another vehicle to the specific intersection.
However, if the resolution of camera is low or if another vehicle is far from the own vehicle, the position of another vehicle cannot be highly accurately detected on the basis of the captured image. It may be difficult to appropriately prioritize the vehicles which are proceeding into the specific intersection.
An object of the present invention is to provide a control method for a traveling apparatus and a traveling control apparatus which allows a vehicle to appropriately travel through a specific intersection into which vehicles are permitted to proceed in the order that the vehicles arrive at the intersection.